Eager voters equate Election Day to Christmas, Super Bowl

Half a million Iowans had already voted before the polls opened today.

Harold Leahi of Waterloo cast his ballot early.

“Five minutes or less,” Leahi told Radio in late October. “It was a piece of cake.”

But Jerry Full of Iowa City waited and sang the opening bars to a “Fiddler on the Roof” classic as he talked with Radio Iowa on Sunday.

“Tradition! Tradition!” Full sang, then added: “I like going to the polls on Eleciton Day. Always have. Always will. Even though half the people in this room say: ‘You need to vote early! You need to vote early!’ No, I don’t.”

Mark Kenney of Ankeny approached today with a sense of anticipation.

“I think it’s great that there’s opportunities for people who may not be able to get to the polls on Election Day. You’ve got all the early vote and absentee stuff — that’s great, but for me it’s always been kind of like Christmas. You’ve got to go that day. Just the sense and the feel of it and the energy,” Kenney told Radio Iowa Monday morning. “I just think participating that day makes you feel more a part of the whole process.”

Jeff Milton of Coralville is ready to watch the scores, or returns come in.

“The group that I assimilate and hang out with, we’re all really pumped and excited and having a little election party or a wake,” Milton said Sunday afternoon, suggesting a Super Bowl like atmosphere for tonight. “It’ll be one of the two.”

Ariel Glasman of Iowa City has already voted. Glasman said she’s spending today encouraging people who haven’t yet voted to do so.

“Just talking to those people on Facebook or SnapChat or Instagram and just trying to get them to go out and vote,” Glasman said. “I think people are talking about it and I think people are aware, but I don’t know that people think the midterms are important and they really are.”

Glasman said her yard is the only one in the neighborhood with campaign signs in it. Don Lionhart of Cedar Rapids said people in his neighborhood aren’t talking about the election much.

“Our neighborhood is pretty split. We’ve got a lot of red signs, we have a lot of blue signs and then we have a lot of no signs,” Swander said. “People aren’t talking too much in regards to politics. We’re just all trying to keep the peace.”